Pumpkin Pie with Shortbread Cookie Crust and Marshmallow Meringue

For Thanksgiving Dinner I made a pumpkin pie for my grandson who must be on a wheat and dairy-free diet. I have made a number of crusts for pies without using wheat, and I must say they have gotten mixed reviews.

Then the other day, my friend Bonnie asked me what I would use for a pie crust and she mentioned that her daughter, Brooke, was thinking about using a gluten-free cookie crust and I thought it was such a good idea that I decided to try it myself. We loved it. The cookie mix I used was the Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free Shortbread Cookie Mix.

I mixed it up using half the package of cookie mix, 1/2 cup margarine and enough cold water to make it a stiff dough. It was easy to do and worked really well. It even rolled out without breaking all apart. I will say that it needs to be rolled thinly because this crust will rise just a bit, but since it is a shortbread and lighter on leavening it works better than many cookie recipes.

The crust was flaky enough and had a mildly sweet flavor -- perfect for a pumpkin pie.

Coconut milk, brown sugar, pumpkin puree made up the pumpkin pie and the topping is a small jar of marshmallow creme, heaped on top and baked to a golden brown. Regular marshmallows could have been heaped on top of the warm pie and baked but I wanted to try the marshmallow creme. It worked well and gave the pie a more exciting flavor than an egg-white meringue. Who doesn't love melted marshmallows, right?

Pumpkin Pie with Shortbread Cookie Crust and Marshmallow Meringue

Crust
1/2 package Bob's Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix
1/2 cup butter, trans fat-free margarine or coconut oil
Cold water
Potato flour for rolling out pie crust

Mix together cookie mix and butter, margarine or coconut oil with a pastry knife. Mix in cold water until dough is formed. Pour out onto parchment paper cover with potato flour. Roll out thinly and place into 9.5 inch deep dish pie plate.

Pumpkin Pie

1 can pumpkin puree
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until pie is firm to the touch.

Marshmallow Meringue

1 small container of Marshmallow Creme.

Spoon a small container of Marshmallow creme (for a larger meringue, use a larger container of marshmallow creme) onto top of warm pie. Bake at 400 degrees until top is browned, approximately 5 minutes.

Easy Mexican Corn Bread Muffins

I love old-fashioned corn bread but sometimes my corn bread turns out great and other other times it is dry. I usually prefer cornbread that is savory and not sweet. The only exception to that is Jiffy Corn Bread Mix. It is cheap and I can't seem to mess it up -- no matter how hard I try!

The other day I decided to make some Mexican cornbread to go along with chili. Rather than use my usual Mexican Cornbread recipe that takes a long list of ingredients and even more time, I decided to try something much easier.

I bought two boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix and mixed them up according to the directions on the box. To that I added 3/4 cup of chopped green onions and a cup of mild salsa. I spooned the mixture evenly into two, twelve-count muffin pans, sprayed with baking spray.

It was then baked according to directions and everyone really enjoyed it. It made 24 muffins and was fast, easy and good.

Plus, I have never had a bad batch of these muffins. As I said, I personally would prefer corn muffins that don't have any sugar in them. These are slightly sweet and very light. I always have plenty of compliments on my cornbread when I begin with Jiffy and that it what is most important. When I make them from scratch, I have rarely had a compliments. I have to go with a sure thing.

There are just a few more suggestions: First, if you use hot salsa you will have a spicier muffin. I used mild salsa because I wanted to make muffins everyone would like. Sometimes hot peppers in food can turn people off.

If you add a can of corn to the batter, you can eliminate all or half of the liquid. It might be better to bake it in a pan or skillet, rather than as muffins because it will bake up a very moist cornbread.

Also, you can go to Jiffymix.com and sign up to receive a free Jiffy Corn Bread cookbook. Mine is in the mail.

We have made broccoli!

 I am so excited about our most recent garden crop. We have the most beautiful broccoli I have ever seen. Above is the broccoli my sister picked for Thanksgiving.

The other day while in the garden I said, "Look, we have made broccoli!" -- like Tom Hank's in the movie Cast Away. After building a fire, he said to his soccer ball, "I have made fire!" as if he was the original discoverer of that element.

This was our first successful broccoli, so it is understandable, (I think) that we should be quite excited and proud that we finally were able to grow broccoli after many futile attempts. I will give God credit for the original discovery but I admit I feel quite proud and thankful for our success. It is nice to know that planting it in the fall is the best time for broccoli. We may even have another crop in the spring. We are keeping our finger's crossed.

My sister made the absolute best broccoli casserole for Thanksgiving Dinner and we both think it was partly the cook and the rest -- having very fresh and organic broccoli.

Also in the garden, our Brussels sprouts -- nothing is sprouting yet. It will be spring before we have Brussels sprouts. Behind them are the collards that I think are a bit behind in their growth. The rain will probably help this week.

Our kale is finally beginning to grow.

And our turnip greens look a bit ragged. We need to get in the garden and pick some greens this week.

I am just glad we have something to show.

Chai Pumpkin Bread

Everyone in "blog land" has a post about pumpkin bread! It's almost like the lowly pumpkin has just been discovered. I read a blog that said that "everything is better with pumpkin in it," and I think that is not quite a complete statement. I would say everything is better with cream cheese, bacon and pumpkin. Pumpkin is the healthiest of those three so that is probably the reason for the sudden discovery and it makes a very moist batter bread that goes well with tea in the fall.

Pumpkin can also be substituted in recipes calling for carrots. It makes a yummy rich pumpkin cake using a carrot cake recipe. This recipe, below, has 1/2 cup of chai tea was very good. Was because it is gone since I very nearly didn't get a photo of it. I made three smaller loaves and gave two of them away. My family then devoured the last loaf.

Chai Pumpkin Bread

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 15-oz. can pumpkin puree (not the pie mix)
1/2 cup strong chai tea (I used my favorite, Bija Rooibos Chai)
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a larger bowl, combine all the dry ingredients until well mixed. In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and still until just mixed. Pour the batter into two 9 x 5 x 3 inch or three 8 x 4 x 3/5 inch greased loaf pans. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until top is firm. Allow to cool.

You may drizzle with a topping made with a cup of Confectioner's sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring and soy milk or regular milk added by the tablespoonful until thin enough to pour onto the tops of the pumpkin bread while still warm.

My Very Berry Tossed Salad

Last Thursday was our Thanksgiving feast at work. It was tantalizing to walk through the building to see what each person brought. The smells alone made us quite hungry. I did not outdo myself because I decided I wanted to just bring a spiced up tossed salad. I was glad I did because a number of people told me how much they enjoyed the salad and I liked it too. It was nice to have something a bit lighter with all the heavy foods.

It was easy because I found some of the berries on sale and found a salad dressing that was perfect. It was a little pricey, but like homemade. I loved it.

I hadn't seen Maple Grove Farms of Vermont salad dressing in my grocery store before. I have purchased their maple syrup and I liked that product, but as I was walking in the salad dressing isle, I looked up and on the top shelf there were some specialty salad dressings. I was looking for a salad dressing that had berries in the ingredient list. I wasn't so sure about this one but I decided to try it. I will tell you it is wonderful and so fresh. It doesn't have that bottled salad dressing taste. I find it hard to explain but most salad dressings have a bit of an aftertaste to me. This one was perfect and was the perfect dressing for my Very Berry Tossed Salad.

I will buy this dressing again, but only on special occasions because it was yummy, but expensive. I think it would make a perfect side for Thanksgiving dinner!

Here's the easy recipe:

Very Berry Tossed Salad

1 large package mixed salad greens (pre washed)

4 stalks celery, cut into thinly sliced pieces

1 small package (4 to 6 oz.) blackberries (or more)

1 small package (4 to 6 oz.) blueberries (or more)

1/2 package of dried cranberries (Approximately 1/2 cup)

3 ounces basil and garlic flavored feta cheese (broken into small pieces)

1/4 cup raw walnut pieces

Alfalfa sprouts

Maple Grove Farms of Vermont Strawberry Balsamic dressing

Fill a large salad bowl with salad greens. Sprinkle on half of the celery, fresh berries, cranberries, feta, walnuts and sprouts. Fill the bowl to the top with salad greens. Sprinkle on the rest of the ingredients in the same order. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Gently toss salad and serve with Maple Grove Farms Strawberry Balsamic salad dressing.

Easy, healthy -- a wonderful treat!

Snowman cupcakes

This was probably the hardest cupcake I decorated for the 2011 November/December Issue of Newnan-Coweta Magazine. The decorations are made using marshmallows, toothpicks, fruit roll ups, sugar stars and melted chocolate chips.

I first piped icing all over the top of the cupcake. If you will notice, I didn't worry about covering the entire cupcake. I was planning to keep these in a covered container so they shouldn't dry out.

I then took a toothpick and pushed it through the center of one regular-size marshmallow, into the center of a second marshmallow. I secured these marshmallows to the center top of the cupcake, using the bottom part of the toothpick. If your toothpicks aren't large enough, try a wooden skewer and cut it off the length that is needed to fasten the marshmallows securely to the top of the cupcake.

I used green fruit roll ups to make a cap by wrapping it around my largest finger and twisting the top together and fitting the "cap" onto the top of the marshmallows. I trimmed some of the roll up away with kitchen shears if it looked too tall.

I then fashioned a scarf around the snowman's neck with a long strip of blue roll up.

I made a carrot out of a piece of red and yellow roll up mashed together.

Next I melted the chocolate and poured it into a small decorators' bag. Using a small round tip. I added the eyes, and mouth with dots and then drew on the arms with chocolate.

I think they are cute.

The blue sugar stars around the outside edge completed the decoration.

Kids would enjoy helping to make these miniature snowmen. They weren't hard to make.

Thanksgiving ideas

Have you ever used Pinterest? I use it to find ideas for decorating, cooking, crafts and even sometimes for work. I love to find new and creative ideas and keep them at my fingertips. That is why I joined Pinterest.com and I use it almost daily. Here are some of the Thanksgiving ideas from Pinterest. Some I will use and some I just like -- maybe for next year.

I like the little pilgrim hats above from Amber Engelke. I think I could make them gluten-free and dairy-free if I could find some cookies that are similar -- or I could just dip the entire cookie in vegan chocolate chips. Very cute.

This turkey from blogs.babycenter is great because kids can go out and find their leaves and then paste everything together.

These pies from cooking.thenerdswife.com are very pretty. I have cooked custards in little glass canning jars like this but never a miniature pies. I heard that mini pies were going to be big and here is a low-budget, reusable "pie dish" for you.

Oh my goodness! Pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and they are vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I will be baking these for Thanksgiving! Many thanks to eatprayrun.com for the recipe.

 I love this Turkey Pear Salad that any kid could make. familyfun.go.com is famous for charming ideas like this one. I don't know what to use for the feet but I'll bet I could find something healthy and fun. These folks are so creative.

Speaking of healthy and fun, livinglocurto.com made this vegetable tray made from all the right stuff -- that is adorable. If you can't get your kids to eat this they are turkeys! Just kidding, but you should be able to get kids to bite.

 I like this simple tree from familyfun.go.com. It's as simple as getting a small branch and cutting out colorful leaves. Add what you are thankful for and it will be a great Thanksgiving creation.

Last year we were Indians, so I think we should give the Pilgrims equal time. I think these Pilgrim hats would be easy, too. They are from marthastewart.com.

This -- or something similar to this will be hanging on my front door come Thanksgiving morning. It's from marthastewart.com and is so lovely -- and easy.

Turkey pinwheels! What a great idea! We WILL be making this. I think we will use scrapbook paper which is a little stiffer than regular paper. You can find find the instructions at parents.com.

I don't know if we will do this but it is so cute from sheekshindigs.com. It would be a great thing to make and would make the table setting a sheek shindig!

I have so many napkins in sets of 4 and 8, but not a set large enough for every Thanksgiving guest. If I used a DIY napkin ring like this, it wouldn't matter if my napkins don't all match. These are very cute -- and not even ironed and I like them very much. Thanks twoshadesofpink.com for opening my eyes to the possibilities. I don't need new napkins just something to decorate them.

Hope these ideas will inspire you as they have me.